WITH LATER ASCRIPTION TO 'ALA AL-DIN AL-TABRIZI, IRAN, 16TH CENTURY AND LATER

Details

QUR'AN
WITH LATER ASCRIPTION TO 'ALA AL-DIN AL-TABRIZI, IRAN, 16TH CENTURY AND LATER
Arabic manuscript on paper, 372ff. as numbered plus 4 fly-leaves, each folio with 12ll. of elegant black naskh in clouds reserved against gold ground, catchwords, text panels outlined in gold and black on margins with gold outer rule, gold and polychrome rosette verse markers, sura headings in gold on gold and polychrome illuminated panels, khams and 'ashr marked in gold naskh in the margins, hizb and juz' similarly marked within polychrome illuminated medallions, opening bifolio with 18th century Indian gold and polychrome illumination surrounding 6ll. of text, similarly illuminated roundels on the first and final folio, the colophon written in a larger, more stylised naskh verging on riq'a and giving the name 'Ala al-Din al-Tabrizi and the date AH 993, the fly-leaves with a number of notes regarding scribe and ownership ascribed to scribes such as Ahmad al-Nayrizi and Ibrahim al-Qumi, in Qajar lacquer binding with overall floral motif, the doublures with gold floral lattice on red ground within calligraphic borders dated Rabi' II AH 1250, in brown morocco slip case
Text panel 4 5/8 x 2½in. (611.6 x 6.4cm.); folio 6 7/8 x 4 3/8in. (17.5 x 11cm.)

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Lot Essay

Whilst the colophon of this manuscript which attributes it to ‘Ala al-Din al-Tabrizi is a later addition, the elegant naskh in which the Qur’an copied in is extremely strong and in the style of the master. Stylistically it is not impossible that our manuscript was penned by him. ‘Ala al-Din Tabrizi (d.1592 AD) was a court calligrapher under Shah Tahmasp, who flourished in the third quarter of the 16th century. The Gawhar-Sultan album in the Nasser D. Khalili Collections includes numerous calligraphic panels by ‘Ala al-Din Tabrizi. One of the pages published in The Art of the Pen shows the scribe working in a number of different styles, including a small neat naskh very similar to that of our Qur’an (Nabil F. Safwat, The Art of the Pen, London, 1996, no.43, p.85).

At some point in the 18th century it is likely that our manuscript was in India where the lavish illumination on the opening bifolio was added. A Qur’an in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, attributed to the Deccan and dated 1780-82, has illumination very similar in colour and style (Manijeh Bayani, Anna Contadini and Tim Stanley, The Decorated Word, London, 1999, no.70, pp.220-21).

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